What If?
by TrueNight1025
Summary: What if you lost someone you loved right in front of you? What if you never got to say good-bye to them? But what if you got a second chance to see them again? Based off of my BAU story. Short chapters, no flames please.
1. Chapter 1

**This is based on my Sonic/BAU story, for those fans. So here's the sum-up here:  
**

**Shadow was after a killer who made a deal with the old detective, the killer offered the same deal to Shadow but the ebony hedgehog refused. They finally caught the killer, Mephiles, but he escaped prison. Months later, Mephiles breaks into Shadow's apartment and stabs him nine times, wounding the hedgehog. He decides to put his family, his ex-wife Maria and hung son Jack, under Witness Protection. But the evil demon found them.**

**Mephiles had killed Maria while Shadow was on the phone with her, he heard her die. However Shadow killed Mephiles by beating him to a bloody pulp and he managed to save their son, Jack. Now some years have gone by and every year on the anniversary, Shadow gets those memories of losing her over and over again.**

* * *

_"Promise me, Shadow!" Maria cried out on the phone. She felt Mephiles' crystal hand against head back, aimed straight for her heart. Shadow was driving to his old home going to rescue his family._

_"I promise," Shadow said choking back tears._

_Then a scream was heard, Mephiles performed his Death Lance on her and she died._

Shadow opened his eyes and gasped, sitting up in his makeshift bed. He looked around the room, he was in the G.U.N.'s bunks room; he was dreaming again. He looked at the calendar on the wall, it was _that _day, the day he lost his precious Maria. Yes, he was dating Amy Rose for he learned to love again, but it wasn't the same. Then Sonic came in the room.

"Shadow, you doing okay?" Sonic asked him, knowing what day it was.

"Yeah," Shadow said rubbing his eyes. "I'm fine."

"You had that dream again, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Shadow turned so he was sitting on the side of his bed. "So what mission is it today?"

"Like it is everyday: catch Eggman."

The two hedgehogs left the bunks and went for their mission. They walked through the G.U.N., which was located in Soleanna, and got to the conference room where Tails, Knuckles and Rouge were. Commander Tower was there as well, getting ready with the briefing. Sonic sat down, Shadow leaned up against the wall.

"Now that we're all here, let's get started," Tower said. "We determined that Dr. Eggman is somewhere in this part of Knothole Forest."

Everyone saw Tower circling around an area of a map. Shadow started getting a pain in his torso but he ignored it.

"Team Heroes will cause distraction in the front," Tower said referring to Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. "Team Dark will sneak around the back and shut down the defence systems to allow us access. That when we go in and capture Eggman."

"Finally," Sonic declared. "Getting that old egghead!"

"Where's the control board?" Shadow asked. His chest pains started getting tighter and tighter.

"In the basement," Tower replied. "You and Rouge will find your way down, I know you will."

"Just make sure that faker does... his part," Shadow said, he started to struggle with his words. "Ugh..."

"Shadow?" Rouge called.

Then Shadow collapsed on the floor face first, everyone ran over to check on him.

"His pulse is weak and thready," Tails said feeling Shadow's neck. "Call a bus!"

Shadow's vision started going black.

* * *

**AAAAAAHHHHHHHH! First chapter? Like it so far?**


	2. Chapter 2

Rouge went with Shadow for everything, she followed him as the paramedics brought him out of the G.U.N. and to their ambulance where she sat in as they worked on him. She followed him in the hospital where they rolled him straight up to the OR, but she had to stop there because the room had to be sterile. After she got the news from the doctor, she went to a webcam to talk to the others.

"How is he?" Tower asked her.

"They did an ultrasound and say he's bleeding internally," Rouge told them. "They think it's from all the scar tissue."

"Torn adhesions from the stab wounds," Tails said.

"Even beyond the grave, Mephiles can still hurt him," Sonic said. "Of all days."

"He's up in the OR now," Rouge said.

"Does Amy or Jack know?"

"Jack's in the hospital's kidsroom, he only knows that his dad's sick. And I left a message for Amy but she's visiting her folks in Knothole. Look, I'm not going anywhere, I'll be calling you guys to give you updates. And I know that Shadow would want you guys to catch Eggman, so that's want you're gonna do, alright?"

The boys nodded.

* * *

The doctors were operating on Shadow now, the hedgehog had a intubation tube in his throat and he was knocked out cold. His body was cut open, the doctors fiddled around inside.

"Pulse is stable at eighty-six," the first doctor, a male, red hawk, said. "Is it true what I heard about his guy?"

"Yeah," the second doctor, a male wolf, said. "Serial killer almost stabbed him to death."

As the doctors worked on him, Shadow was getting visions...

_Shadow was in his white hospital gown and found himself on a metal ship of some kind. He walked through a door, but he looked to one side and saw a capsule, bg enough for one person to fit in. He started walking in the new room and in one blink he was himself without his gown: his chest fur, his black quills. He saw a window and walked up to it, he looked out and saw the planet Mobius. He gazed upon its beauty, the green earth, the blue ocean, the yellow blur. _

_Wait. Yellow blur? Shadow looked up and saw a yellow blur in the reflection on the glass. He gasped, afraid that it might be a dream, that it could be who he though it could be. He turned around and saw..._

_"I see you got here first," the yellow hedgehog girl giggled, she stretched her hand out for him._

_It was her, it was Maria._

_Shadow walked up to her, in case it was all a dream. He reached out for her and grabbed her hand, it was real for he felt the warmth from her palm. He got closer and embraced her in a hug._

_"I miss you," Shadow said in her body._

_"I know," she said back, she lifted up her head and looked out the window. "Oh! It's starting."_

_She brought Shadow to the window, there they saw Shadow's life after Maria's death being played out like a movie. He was with their son, Jack, playing, having fun, meeting Amy._

_"Who's that?" Maria asked him, she didn't have any jealousy in her voice._

_"Her name is Amy," Shadow said. He started to get sad, he felt he had forgotten about Maria, not mentioning her to their son._

_"She's really good with him."_

_"She's not you, and I'm not enough," Shadow said, tears started coming down his face. "Jack misses you, too."_

_"We'll you should talk about me more," Maria saw the tears coming down his face, she she wiped them away. "He's not like you, he needs to hear the words."_

_Maria turned back to the window and watched more of her son enjoy life. She smiled happily, grabbing Shadow's hand and squeezing it. Shadow was happy, feeling like he would never leave her side again._

* * *

**What does this mean? Read and find out! :3**


	3. Chapter 3

**Comments! At last!  
**

**Anonymous Fan: I'm so glad you liked my BAU story! Are you watching Criminal Minds now? I bet if you are you're thinking the characters as my characters, huh? :P and thank you for the complement, it's really nice to hear that you like my style!**

**Lydia the tygeropean: hey! Welcome back! Oh, I know this is good! Thank you!**

* * *

The doctors continued to work on Shadow.

"Oh man," the wolf said seeing inside Shadow. "It's worse than we thought."

"His pulse has dropped to seventy-two," the hawk surgeon said.

Something bad was happening.

_Shadow and Maria were watching the memories of Shadow still. He felt so happy being with her, his heart felt like he was falling in love with her all over again. Then someone sat beside Maria, so she was between the two. Shadow looked past her; his heart started racing, his skin started crawling, his mind started flashing back._

_"Hope I didn't miss anything," the dark figure said; it was Mephiles._

_"What's he doing here?" Shadow asked Maria, he had a ting of fear in his voice but he didn't want to show the demon any of his fear._

_"Oh, it's okay," Maria whispered to Shadow as she kept her eyes on the screen. "I invited him."_

_Maria and Mephiles watched the window, then Amy came on; it was the memory of her and Shadow on their first official date._

_"Whoa," Mephiles said eyeing Amy. "If that isn't a sight for sore eyes..."_

_"I know," Maria smiled. "She's so pretty."_

_"And hot. If I were alive," he laughed, then he turned to Shadow. "Hey, I bet she's a real 'hedgehog' in the sack, huh?"_

_Shadow growled at him; despite the demon being dead, Shadow's hate for him was very much alive._

_"Oh, Shadow," Maria said patting his arm. "He's just playing. Let's just keep watching."_

_As much as Shadow wanted to pounce Mephiles and kill him all over again, he relentlessly turned his attention back to the window where they continued to watch Shadow's memories. Then Shadow felt something warm on his hand, he looked down and saw Mephiles pulling his hand out of Maria's stomach. His hand was covered in blood and Maria was bleeding out. Shadow started getting the flashback where he was beating Mephiles to death; where with every blow he delivered, he was punching for a victim._

_"Maria! No, no, no," Shadow shouted seeing her bleed out, but she didn't seem to notice; he pressed his hands in her stomach to try and stop the bleeding. "Somebody, help me! Help me, please!"_

_"Your shouting is going through my ear, Shadow," Mephiles told the panicking hedgehog._

_"Maria, I'm sorry. This is all my fault," Shadow sobbed to her, he still blamed himself; her blood poured onto Shadow's gloves, staining them red. "I can't stop the bleeding. I can't stop the bleeding!"_

_"It's okay," she whispered to him, reassuring him. "You're not suppose to."_

_She put her hands on his to calm him down, but she turned her head to watch the rest of the memories._

Meanwhile, the doctors were trying to shock Shadow's heart back to life for it went into V-fib.

* * *

Outside the operating room, an albino female bat was pacing back and forth, becoming very impatient. She waited for anyone who worked in the hospital to give he an update on Shadow, she'd even ask the janitor if she had to. Then a nurse came out of the OR doors, so Rouge went over to her.

"Nurse," Rouge called to her. "Any word on Shadow?"

"I'm sorry miss," the nurse told her. "I can't give you any information yet. I'm sorry."

Rouge was left there alone as the nurse walked off to do her rounds. The bat sat down in the seating area, wondering what was happening, wondering if she'd ever see his 'not-smiling' smile again. She pulled out Shadow's inhibitor rings from her 'secret department', she held the rings close to her heart and rocked quietly back and forth to herself.

"Shadow, you have to pull through," Rouge said to herself. "You have to. I... I'm not ready to say good-bye yet."

A tear rolled down her cheek, she didn't seem to care. She just kept holding his rings, rocking back and forth.

* * *

**And in case anyone was wondering what V-fib was; it's when the heart isn't pumping blood, it's just seizing and if it's not shocked the person can die. O_o...**

**AAAAAAHHHHHH SHADOW!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Comment time!**

**Lydia the tygeropean: read on!**

**Anonymous Fan: I thought I was the only one. Sometimes I almost shout out the Sonic names instead when I'm watching an episode, but I catch myself. :P**

**I don't know if I said this, but I'll say it again. I have a deviantart page! It's under the same name as my FF name, so I hope my readers will go over and take a gander, my recent artwork I'm proud of. It's based off of my story with Starr, Shadow and Mephiles...**

* * *

The doctors kept shocking Shadow's heart to bring it back to life.

"Clear!" The wolf shouted as he put the shock paddles on Shadow's chest. (A/N: his strong, fluffy fur, masculine chest... Oh boy! Is it getting hot in here?)

Shadow's body spazzed under the shock, but his heart didn't start up.

"Charge to 360," the wolf said. "Clear!"

Another shock ran through the unconscious hedgehog.

**BEEP... BEEP...**

"He's back," the hawk said reading the monitor.

"Alright, let's finish up here," the wolf said. The continued to finish on Shadow.

* * *

_Shadow continued to keep pressure on Maria's stomach, blood kept pouring onto his white gloves. But Maria didn't seemed to care, and Mephiles sure didn't care either._

_"Maria, I'm so sorry," Shadow cried to her. "Please forgive me. Please forgive me."_

_Shadow then lifted his head because the room had regained its lighting, the memory showing was over._

_"That was awesome," Mephiles said. "I'll meet you guys in the other room."_

_Mephiles got up and left the two hedgehogs alone. Shadow looked back down at Maria's wound, but it was gone, as if it never got injured. Her clothes weren't ripped, her blood wasn't coming out and Shadow's gloves were white as snow._

_"Well, it's time to go," Maria told Shadow. She got up and walked to the room where Shadow came from. _

_"But I don't want to go," Shadow called to Maria, he got up and followed her. "Can't I stay a little bit longer?"_

_"You can't stay," she giggled. "You have to go."_

_"Please," he got in front of her. "I want to stay with you."_

_"I know you're use to getting your own way but you have to go back. Sometimes you just have to roll with it," Maria smiled at him, she walked past him._

_"I don't know how," he said sadly._

_"Happiness is a choice, so choose," Maria said, she walked in the first room and Shadow followed her._

_"How?" He asked her, when he walked in the first room he was back in the hospital gown, but he didn't seem to care. "How do I choose?"_

_"Get out your head. The heart is the one that knows, so follow it."_

_Then Mephiles came in the room holding the Sceptre of Darkness._

_"This was a blast," he said. "We gotta do this again sometime."_

_Maria smiled at him, he then gave her a big, warm hug; he then turned to Shadow._

_"Take care of yourself, big guy," Mephiles said hugging him, Shadow just stood there shocked and not smiling. "Loosen up, buddy. Would it kill ya to smile?"_

_Mephiles joked. He raised the Sceptre up in the air, it hovered over him and he turned into his liquid form. He then went in it, and the Sceptre fell to the floor, echoing across the metal room; Shadow looked back at Maria after Mephiles was gone._

_"Amy's a keeper, and Jack really likes her. So don't screw it up," she chuckled._

_Maria then took off her expensive gold wedding ring and put it in a sad Shadow's hand. She put her hand on his shoulder, pulled him close to her and lovingly kissed her lips._

_"Good-bye, Shadow," she said to him. "And yes, I still love you too."_

_Maria then guided Shadow to a capsule. She put him in it and closed it up. Shadow watched as she walked away, his hands pressed up against the glass, his breath fogging up his vision. He wiped the glass to see Maria's hand on the grip of a lever, she waved good-bye to her lover and pulled the trigger. Shadow then felt himself falling, the capsule fell from the ARK and flew towards earth. Shadow saw as the ARK got smaller and smaller, eventually the capsule disappeared into nothingness._


	5. Chapter 5

**This is it, the final chapter. Yes I know the story was short but I think it was a story worth telling.**

* * *

Rouge was pacing back and forth in the waiting room, waiting for anyone to give her some news. She kept Shadow's inhibitor rings close to her heart, she was getting worried about her friend. Then the operating room doors opened up and the surgeon came out. She ran over to the wolf, her eyes were full of concern.

"Are you here for Shadow the Hedgehog?" The wolf asked her.

"Yes," she quickly said.

"The scar tissue tore up so we opened him up. There were some complications but he managed to pull through."

"So you're saying he's going to be okay?"

"Anyone torn up that bad on the inside and pulls through is a fighter."

"Can I go see him?"

"He's in the recover room," the wolf pointed to the door with the words 'RECOVERY ROOM' on the glass.

"Thank you," Rouge said to him.

She paced herself over to the room, she barged through the doors and saw him. Shadow laid asleep in the bed, a cream-coloured blanket covered him, it sat below his chest fur and an IV was attached to his hand. Rouge pulled up a chair next to the bed, she sat down in it and waited for Shadow to wake up. She then texted Commander Tower to inform him that Shadow was alright and was in recovery now.

After that, she brought out a crossword puzzle to keep herself busy. Several minutes went by, she found some answers and some she couldn't figure out. She wrote down what she could, then she felt a presence. She recognized it, it was so familiar: introverted but so brave. She looked up and saw ruby red eyes fluttering open.

"Shadow," she gasped happily. "Welcome back."

"What happened?" The groggy hedgehog asked her.

"You collapsed, so they had to perform emergency surgery on you. There were some complications but you're gonna be okay."

"Where's Jack? And Amy?"

"Jack's here and Amy is at her folks. Would you like me to go get your young offspring and call Amy for you?"

"Please."

"Okay," Rouge got up from her chair, she was so happy that Shadow was okay she instinctively kissed his cheek; this caused Shadow to gasp a little. "Oh! I'm so sorry, Shadow! I... I don't know what came over me."

"It's okay," he said, Rouge was about to leave when Shadow added one more thing. "Rouge, thank you for staying."

"Wild horses," she smiled. "Wild horses."

She then left the room.

* * *

A few minutes later, Shadow had managed to sit up in his bed. He was still weak but had gotten more strength in time. He was still hazy for some time, he was trying to understand what happened to him when he was being operated on. Was what he saw a dream, or was it real? He pondered his thoughts when a knock came to his door; it was Rouge.

"Shadow, you have a visitor," Rouge smiled, then a small black and yellow hedgehog ran through the door.

"Dad!" It was Jack. He jumped on the bed and wrapped his arms around his father, he was happy that he was alright.

"Hey buddy," Shadow said to his son, he embraced him in the hug.

"Are you okay?"

"I am now."

As Shadow was hugging Jack, he looked down at his own hand and noticed something shiny. He turned his wrist to get a better look, it glistened in the light. He gasped quietly seeing it on his pinky finger.

It was Maria's ring.

**THE END.**

* * *

**So I wanted to make the ending a bit magical. Cool huh? I hoped everyone liked it! New story coming soon! It entails my OC, Starr, and Shadow; a sequel to "Shadow's Starr". **


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